


Parallel Lines

by GalaxyOwl



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Gen, Post-Hephaestus, Pre-Hephaestus, casually skirting the edge of being AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9077476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyOwl/pseuds/GalaxyOwl
Summary: There's years in-between, but Lovelace manages to take the same route twice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Secret santa present for tumblr user covinskey, who requested something with Lovelace.

Lovelace steps onto the launchpad. Today’s the day. After months of training and preparation and wondering what in the world she was even thinking signing onto this—it all managed to come together without too many hitches. 

None of the Goddard execs are there, Rachel or Cutter or anyone else she’d spoken to. No one is waiting to greet her. It makes sense; everything they would have had any business worrying about had been finalized the day before. There’s nothing left for Lovelace and her crew but the mission itself. Yet there’s something unnerving about the fact that there’s no one there to see them off at all, the launch site a ghost town with the rocket the only building.

The rocket is… Big. Bigger than photos can easily communicate, really; a white spire rising up from the concrete pad.  Lovelace ducks into the narrow shuttle space. Most of the crew is already there, which is surprising given Lovelace arrived half an hour early herself.

“Good morning, Captain,” says one of the others. Lambert, she’s pretty sure. They were kept apart most of their training, and she’s still not quite sure she can match all of the names to the faces. She’ll have to get better at that, but then, she’s got more than a year to do so. There’s no rush.

“Morning,” she says, as she she moves towards a seat. “Any word from the launch tower?”

“Just that we’re still scheduled for 08:00,” says Fisher. Lovelace nods.

They go through the last of the prep for the shuttle, make sure everything is in its exact correct place, but it’s a formality, really. Everything was prepped long before any of them even touched the shuttle.

The other crew members arrive. The last of them is the head scientist; Selberg. Lovelace greets him as he enters.

And then they’re ready.

“All systems set,” Lovelace tells the radio.

Below them, the rocket ignites. 

It takes off, leaving the ground behind with dizzying speed. Not long after, the G-force hits, pressure slamming into them. 

They fly on, and up, and then out of the atmosphere, and they're still moving faster than anything Lovelace can really comprehend but it doesn’t matter anymore. The Earth is behind them, visible for a brief moment in marbled blues and greens.

They've still got a long way to go before they reach the Hephaestus. But in that moment, there’s only one thought running through Lovelace’s head: she can’t believe she's really here.

***

Lovelace stops her hands above the controls as she catches sight of it through the narrow window: Earth. The blue oceans tumble across its sides, bright and beautiful even from this distance.

"Captain?" Minkowski says. "Did you—"

"Look," Lovelace says, nodding towards the window. 

Minkowski looks. "Oh," she says.

It shouldn't be the shock that it is—Lovelace knew this was the last leg of the journey. They were in the middle of final prep for landing. And yet, somehow, seeing the Earth again is enough to catch at something deep in Lovelace's chest. She made it. They made it! Not easily, and not all of them, but she made it this far, at least.

Lovelace is going to go home. Whatever that means now.

"Come on," Minkowski says "We have to get back to work if we're going to make it down. Lovelace, are you finished with the navigations check?"

"Just a second," Lovelace says. She's not sure when Minkowski started being the one giving her the orders; she’s long since stopped worrying about it. It’s not like any of them are really in charge of this particular mess, anymore.

She finishes the navigations check. It doesn’t take long.

Minkowski asks Hera whether everything looks ready. Hera mutters something, for what must be the millionth time, about interfacing with the Urania being complicated, but adds, “It _appears_ that everything’s functioning properly.”

“Alright then,” Minkowski says. She doesn’t say anything else.

“Hera,” Lovelace says. “Begin descent procedures.”

“Commander?” Hera prompts.

“Do it,” Minkowski says.

They’ve been drifting towards the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere already, starting to get caught up in its orbit, but now the ship changes course with a lurch as the engines fire them down towards Earth.

There’s a violent noise as they break the atmosphere. The Urania wasn’t designed for this kind of descent, but it should hold. At least, in theory.

Lovelace catches only glimpses of the blue sky as they rush down. Minkowski is shouting something at Hera but Lovelace can’t catch many words. She can’t help but think that it’s pointless to worry, even as she carefully checks and rechecks the system readings at her station. They’re doing this now, no matter what goes wrong.

They start to slow as the atmosphere eats up their speed, and some of the exterior hull panels. Lovelace realizes, at one point, that she’s laughing a little. It’s half from the terror of it and half from wild, unmitigated glee.

Then the ship slams into the earth with a deafening crash.

A moment of quiet. The ship holding its breath. Lovelace is strapped in, so the impact only jostles her a little. Still, it takes her that moment to get her bearings, to reorient herself to where she's sitting as relates to gravity. She's angled awkwardly, and as she unclasps the straps she has to hold on to stop from sliding down the side of the ship.

"Everyone make it?" she asks, casting her gaze about.

"I think so," says Minkowski.

"Hera?" prompts Eiffel.

“Still here."

Lovelace lets out a breath.

Then, shaking more than she would like or admit, Lovelace gets to her feet, and climbs outside.

The sun shines down from the sky, and in the vastness of the horizon the ship no longer seems so big. Lovelace grins as the others climb out behind her. They're not really home yet, not really finished, but for now there's only one thought running through her head: she can’t believe she's really here.


End file.
